What would you like to see in the next edition of 'Programming ASP.NET'?

Question

With the .NET 3.5 cycle out of the way and ASP.NET 4.0 on the horizon, it's time to try and figure out a way to incorporate the many new features and techniques that have emerged \ been released into the next editions of ASP.NET books.

So then, what would you put in 'Programming ASP.NET 4.0' and what would you NOT put in it? Books are supposed to be for the programming community so here's your chance to have your say.

Answer 1

I've had a suggestion that including VB and C# samples in the book would be a good idea rather than leave one in the download.

Answer 2

I think that it's a difficult question considering the sheer size of ASP.NET and the Framework itself.

However, saying that, I'd be keen to discover best practice solutions for data access solutions, such as:

• Master-Detail views
• Paging records and only retrieving the requested data from the backing store
• Displaying hierarchical data in a grid
• Loading and saving images
• Editing data 'live' on the page without postbacks

These are the sort of queries that I see on sites such as this one again and again. I realise that your book isn't a 'cookbook' of solutions, but it would be useful if these not-so-esoteric topics were touched upon. Of course, I'd expect that Dynamic Data, MVC, Routing and so on would also be discussed in depth.

Also, AJAX is still very relevant, but I'd argue that AJAX.NET may be on the wane. What about some info on adding AJAX functionality using jQuery, which is going to be officially supported in v4.0?

I'd rather code samples be in a single language, as it's easy to convert from one to the other and it saves on trees :)

Answer 3

• Microsoft Chart Controls Click here
• Linq
• I second the MVC suggestion as well.

Answer 4

Indeed. The ASP.NET 4.0 story is very much one about more choice for everything. We have web sites, web app projects, MVC sites, and dynamic data sites, and within those we have AJAX, AJAH and classic server-side strategies with a plethora of ways to implement them. And the VB\C# conundrum. I had forgotten about the chart controls, but I'll include them too.

I think one core element of the book will be to try as much as possible to inform the reader which project type\strategy would best suit them.

Another quick q then: does anyone care what operating system or theme screenshots are taken in? I expect the publisher to suggest they are taken on Windows 7 in IE8 with Aero switched but would it really matter if it were on XP or Vista or 2008 in windows classic?